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What’s in a Name

While studying the books of Genesis and Exodus I divinely came across a beautiful revelation hidden in the names. Oftentimes while reading the word we take no thought to the names of the people in the story or we get to the “begot” section of the word, that long list of names detailing the descendants of the key person of the chapter and though we don’t mean to, we skim over or even skip the names to move on to the “relevant” stuff. Okay, perhaps you have never done this but I know I have.

One day God reminded me that the bible is “His Story” and He doesn’t waste words, every verse, every thought, every word has a purpose, it shouldn’t be discarded. So with that thought in mind a beautiful message was revealed to me. As I was reading I noticed a reoccurring theme, God would often say, I am the God of your father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In some books God would say, I am the God of Israel. (Gen. 28:13, Ex. 3:6, Ruth 2:12) So that led me to look up the Hebrew meaning of these names and this is what I found.

Abraham means Father of the Multitude (this is like a picture of God, a Father to us all)

Isaac means Laughter (a sign of Joy)

Jacob means Supplanter (this means to be a substitute or take the place of)

Israel means One who has power with God (a picture of Jesus Christ)

This is the message I pulled out of this:

It is the Joy of our Father to be our substitute and take our place through His Son Jesus Christ.

A story within a story, God’s story, hidden in the names of our spiritual forefathers. How great is our God. I believe that these are some of the hidden treasures God left for us to find. He did promise in His own words, “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.”Luke 8:17 nkjv

To all the Shakespeare lovers I do apologize for the title, but I just had to share what God revealed to me and that is that there is much to be found in a name. 🙂 God bless you.